﻿﻿Warwick-Wilson Preview

Coming off its 42-0 setback to Hempfield last Friday, Warwick enters week 10 of the season on a five-game losing streak.

But Section One leader Wilson (6-0 L-L, 9-0 overall) visiting Grosh Field on Friday night, the Warriors (1-5 L-L, 2-7 overall) have the opportunity to play the spoiler role.

However, they will have their hands full facing Section One’s leading running back Shane Dantzler, who has 950 rushing yards this fall despite missing last week’s game, a 28-7 Bulldog win over Penn Manor. In his absence, Tim Whitmoyer ran for 209 total yards against the Comets.

Bruce Morgan: With a victory over Warwick this Friday and the opportunity to clinch Section One outright, how much motivation will that give your team?

Doug Dahms: The team is well aware of what is at stake and we caution them not to take Warwick lightly because they always play us tough.

BM: Coach Locker, is running back Shane Dantzler the one you have to be most concerned about with Wilson?

Bob Locker: Yes, but the funny thing is he didn’t play Friday night and his back-up ran for, like, 200. He’s a pretty special running back, but he also benefits from an outstanding offensive line. He’s the real deal.

BM: What does he do particularly well?

BL: Accelerates through the hole. If he sees a crack, he’s through it. He’s got good breakaway speed. He’s just flat-out fast. And he’s one of those kids who sees the natural cutback lanes before they entirely open up. He’s got a great sense of what’s about to open up and gets himself there.

BM: Are there other weapons in Wilson’s offense besides Dantzler?

BL: The quarterback (Jake Templin)’s got a good arm, he runs the ball well. They have some solid wideouts and they’re able at times to line up in a two tight end-offense, which is a real luxury because their tight ends are nice sized kids, they block well and they catch passes.

BM: Coach Dahms, how special of a running back is Shane Dantzler for your team?

DD: Shane is very strong and very quick with good vision. His ability to break tackles has gotten him a lot of extra yards.

BM: What have been the keys to your team’s success in a tough Section One race this fall?

DD: They buy in to the team concept and each of them has worked extremely hard in the off-season to prove they are the best.

BM: Back to you coach Locker, what will you need to improve on going into Friday night’s game?

BL: The two young quarterbacks (Tyler Trimarchi and Taylor Lentz) will have to show some growth this week. I think the notion of starting a game, in Trimarchi’s case, was different than being thrown in late in a game. With him having time to think about it, I just think he was really nervous and maybe a bit over-thinking things. Both he and Lentz, when they take reps this week, they’ve got to get more comfortable with the offense, they’ve got to trust stepping up in the pocket. So we have to work on that. We’re going to have to work on some pass protection. Wilson’s defense … it’s about as good a Wilson defense as I’ve seen in a long time. They’re big, they’re fast and they fly to the football. So we’re going to have to shore up our pass protection, we’re going to have to probably scale the offense down a little bit further, in terms of number of plays. Just try to get quality reps at a handful of things and get the quarterbacks comfortable with what we’re doing.

BM: A year ago, you played a solid game against Wilson and came up a little short in a 41-13 loss. Do you expect that same kind of effort on Friday night?

BL: I hope so. It’s the last game for the seniors, that should be motivation enough. You measure yourself against quality people and Wilson is a very, very good football team. They need to rise up to the challenge and get after it.

BM: Are any of your injured players expected back?

BL: Chris Borg should be able to play. I expect him to play. I really am pretty sure that (Robbie) Grow will not play this week. (Isaac) Rissinger will not play. Other than that, we seemed on Saturday to be relatively healthy. That doesn’t mean that we won’t have some things that popped up over the weekend. We’ll check things out (Monday) and go from there.

BM: How important will it be to get a good start against Wilson?

BL: It would be very important. Friday night, we were behind 14 real fast, but like I said to you earlier, the first time (facing) fourth down, an honest appraisal was that we were going to match scores with them. So it would be nice to get off to a good start, whether it be offensively or defensively. If it’s offensively, put a drive together early on and get comfortable. If it’s defensively, just go out and hit people.

BM: Coach Dahms, what concerns you most about facing Warwick this Friday?

DD: After the schedule we’ve played, you always have to concern yourself that the team is not looking ahead to districts, we must take it one game at a time.